Reeves celebrates British Championship success Tim Reeves and Gregory Cluze enjoyed a superb two days of racing at Donington Park over the weekend when the duo clinched the Eastern Airways ‘Battle of Britain’ F1 Sidecar Championship. The Anglo-French pairing took two wins and a second from their races to wrap up the title with a round to spare thus crowning an excellent first season together. The victories took their tally in Britain for the year to 12 and came soon after an excellent second overall in the World Championship. Having taking second in qualifying, just three tenths of a second behind the pole position time of Ben and Tom Birchall, Tim got his weekend off to the perfect start when he won Saturday’s 10-lap race by almost seven seconds. The race was held in difficult, wet conditions but Tim and Gregory grabbed the holeshot and led from start to finish in convincing fashion. Sunday dawned dry and sunny and the opening 10-lap race saw Tim and Gregory go head to head once more with the Birchall brothers. Tim led on the opening two laps but on lap 3, the duo had a coming together at the Esses and Tim spun out of the action. He rejoined in 5th place and had managed to fight his way back up to second place by the chequered flag. There was to be no mistake in the third and final race though and, after slotting in to second at the end of the first lap, Tim moved by Allan Schofield/Steve Thomas a lap later and promptly pulled away eventually taking the victory by a commanding 13.6s. The victory gave them an unassailable lead in the Championship. Speaking afterwards, a delighted Tim said: “To clinch the title with a round to spare is absolutely brilliant and the weekend couldn’t have gone any better. Saturday’s race was obviously wet and whilst some of the drivers went for intermediates, I chose full wets and I had no problem at all out there so that started the weekend in the ideal fashion. Race 2 saw Ben and myself have a great scrap in the early stages but we then had a bit of a coming together at the Esses and I spun out. It was no-one’s fault, just a racing incident, but the bike stalled and I couldn’t get it out of gear but I eventually got going again in fifth and rode as hard as I could to get back up to second. To then round out the weekend with another victory was perfect.” “It means a lot to me to regain the British Championship and even more so as I’d made a few changes over the winter, what with a new engine and passenger. I’ve got to say a big thank you to Gregory for doing a mega job all season and also to Neil Tuxworth at Honda and Clive Padgett. The CBR1000RR engine was very much unproven at sidecar level but their input and advice throughout the season was invaluable and once we’d overcome a few teething issues at the beginning of the season, the bike was faultless and got better and better. I’d also like to thank all my sponsors for supporting me again especially Gunther and Jutta Reuschling, the Haith family, Mark Middleton of Double ‘M’ Racing, Adrian Hill at Morris Lubricants, Sam and Ian Hamilton of Express Tyres, Lockerbie and Neil Pallett. I couldn’t have done it without them or all my other sponsors and I’m over the moon to repay their faith and commitment with the British title.” The final round of the Championship takes place this weekend at the ‘Festival of Sidecars’ at Mallory Park.